iPhone/iPod Touch instrument Workshop :: September 10, 2010 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. :: @ NK Elsenstr. 52 2HH 2Etage 12059 Berlin :: Transform your iThing into a personalised sensor instrument! :: Participation is limited to 12 :: Registration: Pre-registration is recommended and can be done by sending an email to: Ko-Le Chen–k.l.chen@ncl.ac.uk :: Fee: Free

…This one-day workshop is intended to give people the skills to develop their own personalized sensor instruments on the iThing, without the need to purchase a developers license, learn much coding or ʻjailbreak’ their phone.

The iPhone is well known as an iconic object of desire in our society of consumption. The use of these ubiquitous iThings is tightly controlled by Apple, who only allow certain apps to be allowed onto the market. Developing apps requires a grasp of programming that most people don’t have, and the purchasing of a developer’s license from Apple. Most of the existing musical apps are somewhat inflexible, trapping the user within someone else’s idea of musical expression. Mostly, it plays music as a commodity, and this is the way most listeners interact with it: it’s potential remains unrealized. However, we believe that the iPhone offers a new paradigm in post-laptop digital performance, and the workshop will give people the tools to begin unlocking this potential.

The accelerometers which typically serve as tilt sensors to rotate photos allow high precision capture of the performer’s gestures. The multitouch screen, otherwise used for scrolling and pinch-zooming text, becomes a reconfigurable graphic user interface akin to the JazzMutant Lemur. The fact that all system components – sensor input, signal processing and sound synthesis, and audio output, are embodied in a single device make it very different than the typical controller + laptop model for digital music performance.

The workshop will suit people of multiple abilities. Those with no experience of using Pure Data will still be able to modify existing patches and turn them into sensor instruments, which is a great gateway into learning Pure Data itself. Those with knowledge and experience of how to use Pure Data will quickly be able to design their own patches and run them on the iPhone. We’ll make sure that everyone goes away knowing where to look on the web for further help and support amongst the large online communities already using Pure Data.

Workshop Leader :: Adam Parkinson is a musician based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, interested in the embodied nature of musical experiences. His musical practice ranges from avant garde discopop to glitchy electronica and textural improvisations. He has had releases on Noodles,Entr’acte, Mutate Records and others, and has done remixes for Si Begg, Cakeboy and Dextro. He has given similar workshops in Portugal, and has experience teaching and lecturing on subjects ranging from postmodern discourses on popular musics to sample editing and beat production.

Since discovering the potential of the iPhone, he’s closed his laptop and been relying on iPhones as the main instrument for improvising solo and in groups. He performs in a duo with Atau Tanaka, both using two iPhones running granular synthesisers. Atau and Adam have performed at the FutureEverything Festival in Manchester, the New York Electronica Arts Festival and the PixelAche Festival in Helsinki.

Schedule for Workshop: September 10, 2010:

11.00- 11:30
Introductions/ Demo

11:30 -13:00
Download / install Pure Data Vanilla / RjDj / rjzserver + show people how to set up
networks between iThing and laptop

13:00-14:00
Break

14:00-17:00
Introduction to Pure Data / getting Pure Data patches to run on iThing/ getting and using sensor data from the iThing through building theremins and other sound generators.

17:00-17:30
Break

17.30 –19.00
Playing and performances

Participants will need to bring

iPhone or iPod Touch
Laptops(OSX/Windows)
Headphones

(workshop participants will need to bring their own iThing and laptop, but could probably share one between two)

Workshop Location: @ NK Elsenstr. 52 2HH 2Etage 12059 Berlin

Supported by: Culture Lab, Newcastle University.
Culture Lab brings together contemporary artists, researchers, designers, scientists and the creative industries to develop cutting-edge work using digital technology. It is an experimental academic hub, based at Newcastle University, that addresses social, ethical and political issues through contemporary art and design.